Jacobs Is Sidelined, But Lady Surfriders Come Together
By Jack Danilewicz
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While Kailua head girls basketball coach Zachary Stephens has always made the defensive end a high priority, his players were slower to reach that mind-set.
“The kids know now that they won’t beat teams offensively,” Stephens said. “We saw early that we had a bunch of girls who could play offense, but we didn’t always do a great job of playing defense. Now it has made us who we are.”
BYU-Hawaii’s Virgil (J.R.) Buensuceso is a finalist for the 2009 Bob Cousy Award, which honors the nation’s top collegiate point guard.
His selection is in conjunction with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and The Hartford Financial Services Group (NYSE: HIG). The award is presented April 6 at the NCAA Men’s Final Four in Detroit by HIG.
The 17 finalists were chosen from a pool of more than 60 top candidates from NCAA Division I, II and III institutions across the country. They were screened by committees of media members in all three divisions of collegiate basketball.
One of only two nominees from the NCAA II ranks, Buensuceso currently is on pace to break the BYU-Hawaii record for assists per game in a season and has helped lead his team to its highest national ranking ever at No. 4 in the nation. He is averaging 7.2 assists and 11.1 points per game for the 15-1 Seasiders.
College basketball fans nationwide began voting Feb. 5 for their favorite candidate online at http://www.cousyaward.com. The top vote-getter from the online poll will receive the “Fan Vote”, representing one vote to be cast by the Blue Ribbon committee selecting the Award winner. That committee is comprised of Hall of Famers Bob Cousy, Dean Smith and Jim Calhoun, as well as coaches from Divisions I, II and III, members of the media and college basketball experts and celebrities.
The Surfriders also have weathered their share of adversity despite a strong performance in the recent OIA post-season tournament that saw them win three of their first four games to clinch a berth in this week’s Division I State Basketball Tournament. On the afternoon of Kailua’s first-round OIA playoff game Feb. 10, they lost four-year standout Ashley Jacobs for the rest of the season when she suffered a wrist injury in P.E. class. Much to their credit,the girls responded with a win over Radford that night.
“It was definitely something that was a giant shock for us,“Stephens said of the loss of Jacobs. “She did a lot of different things for us, and her scoring (output) will be a big loss. But defense wins championships, so we’ll have to find our scoring from somewhere else. In the four games without her, we’ve seen a lot of people step up, and
we’ve jelled in her absence. We’ve been getting down and playing defense and taking care of the ball. Some of the other girls have really shown their true colors.”
All told, Kailua managed to hold three of its first four opponents - Radford, (28), Mililani (29) and Moanalua (19) - to under 30 points at the OIA Tournament.Only East top-seed Farrington got the better of them, rolling to a 48-16 win over Kailua in a second-round game. The Governors, who were the top seed out of the East, also posted a 52-26 win over Kailua last Tuesday night that concluded tournament play for the team. Kailua’s win over Moanalua had already earned them a berth in the state tournament.
Kailua had finished its regular season at 5-7 to earn the fifth seed out of the East for the OIA’s post-season.
With Jacobs out of the lineup, the Surfriders’ rotation has featured Zsalei Kamaka, Ka’u Kohatsu, Sola Williams, Anu Ah Yun, Tawny Kiko, Teuila Afele, Alysha Franco and freshman Jayna Hanawahine.
“Looking at it in a positive light, this has been perfect for us,” Stephens said.“Not having her here has helped a lot of our other players grow. There’s been a lot of repetition, and as coaches we’ve tried to reiterate what our basic beliefs are. I give the girls a lot of credit for sticking with us. Now four months in,they’re doing a great job of understanding what we want from them.”
Like Jacobs, Kamaka has played a lot of basketball during her career at Kailua and remains one of the team’s leaders through her play.
“Zsalei has played well all year,” Stephens said of Kamaka,who averaged 8.2 points per game in her first three OIA playoff games.“Tawny has been filling in at the two-spot, and Sola and Anu have really stepped up (in the post). We’ve been able to count on our bigs (post players). They’re both doing an exceptional job of rebounding. Ka’u's been our player to do all of the little things. She brings the ball up and handles the ball, and she always does everything with a smile on her face.
“We’d used Jayna sparingly, but she’s done a great job in a short amount of time for us.She’s our first (post player) off the bench.”
The Surfriders are making their fourth straight state tournament appearance and their first in Division I after three years of competing in Division II. Pairings and sites for this week’s state tourney were to be announced on Sunday. Friday’s title game will be played at Blaisdell Arena.
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